The pandemic’s lasting impact on our health care system has yet to be fully realized. A new health care report released by Global Corporate Venturing, in partnership with Echo Health Ventures, discusses some of the known shifts, how corporate investing is changing and new efforts to form a global corporate venturing capital (CVC) health care investing community.

• Virtual-based care will not go back in its box, and in turn, will enable more robust value-based care.
  Behavioral health and physical health are one and the same. Rising demand for behavioral health services has created a funding frenzy for digital solutions, further breaking down the stigma associated with receiving these services.
  Empty promises of health care consumerism will be tested by solutions putting consumers in the driver’s seat. This is coupled with looming ONC regulatory changes that will give consumers access to all data within their health record, on demand.

“COVID-19 has activated the home as a key place of health care service delivery, even for higher acuity events and conditions,” says Echo Partner Dusty Lieb. “The health care system is innovating rapidly to address this new care delivery modality and create a new standard of care for appropriate treatment and even admissions in the home.” Lieb adds that the next step to fully take advantage of virtual care appointments will be to ensure that digital encounters save on costs while improving both outcomes and the consumer experience.

Kurt Sheline, a Principal at Echo, adds that the future of corporate health care investment will be shaped by novel long-term approaches. “We must rethink how we structure ourselves, our objectives, our incentives and our commitments to be better strategic partners to our portfolio companies. Ultimately, we need to position ourselves to deliver on the promise of being truly strategic – not just corporate – investors, to invest in and build solutions that can successfully scale to transform the health care system.”

Introducing Global Corporate Venturing’s Healthcare Council

To stay abreast of these funding trends, Global Corporate Venturing recently launched its Healthcare Council as a community touchpoint for the global CVC health care investing community. The group will be co-chaired by Rob Coppedge, CEO of Echo Health Ventures, and Bill Taranto, founder of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and will share best practices, thought leadership and build community among health investors.

Discover other patterns in health care investment and read excerpts from the 2021 Q1 report.